Jefferson Abington Hospital (Image courtesy of Google StreetView)
The Lown Institute Hospitals Index is aimed at evaluating how individual hospitals work, specifically on how hospitals can avoid overuse of common low-value tests and procedures. Its recent student put an Abington healthcare facility on its list of those performing unnecessary back surgeries.
According to a press release in November, the study notes that every eight minutes an unnecessary back surgery is performed on an older adult. But that wasn’t its only alarming statistic. The Institute found that these surgeries have cost Medicare up to $600 million annually, racking up a bill of over $2 million in just the last three years.
“We trust that our doctors make decisions based on the best available evidence, but that’s not always the case,” said Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute. “In spinal surgery, as with other fields of medicine, physicians routinely overlook evidence to make exceptions, sometimes at shockingly high rates. This type of waste in Medicare is costly, both in terms of spending, and in risk to patients.”
The study looked at 2019 to 2021 data regarding rates of spinal fusion or “laminectomy” overuse. The Lown Institute said that of hospitals performing at least 500 procedures, it ranked those with the highest proportion of procedures meeting its “overuse criteria.” Ranked number three, nationwide, was Jefferson Abington Hospital.
Topped only by Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College, Pa.(62.8 percent), and a Colorado-based Medical Center of Aurora (42.1 percent), Jefferson Abington Hospital was said to have performed 295 “overuse procedures.” When comparing it to its 726 total procedures, the Lown Institute ranked the hospital third with its overuse rate at a 40.6 percent.
According to the study, the procedure of spinal fusion and/or laminectomy was defined as overuse for patients with “low-back pain if they did not have radicular symptoms, trauma, herniated disc, discitis, spondylosis, myelopathy, radiculopathy, radicular pain or scoliosis.”
Spinal fusion-only cases were not considered overuse for patients with stenosis with neural claudication and spondylolisthesis. Laminectomy-only cases were not considered overuse for patients with stenosis who had neural claudication. Vertebroplasty was defined as overuse for patients with spinal fractures caused by osteoporosis, excluding patients with bone cancer, myeloma, or hemangioma.
“As many as 30 million people receive medical care for a spine problem each year. While surgery is an appropriate treatment option for some, many procedures are performed despite little to no evidence of benefit, and they come with risks,” said the Lown Institute release. “Possible complications include infection, blood clots, stroke, heart and lung problems, paralysis, and even death.”
The Media Relations Department of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health did not respond to emails from Willow Grove Now regarding the matter. Jefferson Abington Hospital is located at 1200 Old York Road in Abington.
To review the full list of hospitals, or learn more about the study, visit the site here.
